We are
custodians of the earth, and it would be a moral disgrace if we left to future
generations a planet that was unhealthy, unsafe, and uninhabitable.

Last
night I joined my friend Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others to speak
about climate change at an event sponsored by the Sunrise Movement.

And
what I told the crowd was that climate change is an existential threat to our
country, to the entire world, and that if we do not act boldly and aggressively
to transform our global energy system away from fossil fuels within the next
few years, there will be irreparable harm done to the planet.

What
significant temperature increases will mean is more drought, more crop
failures, and more famine. Drinking water, already a precious commodity in many
areas, will become even scarcer. Millions of people will be displaced by rising
sea levels, extreme weather events, and flooding. Tropical diseases like
malaria, dengue, and yellow fever will spread into parts of the world where
they don’t currently exist.

All of
this will likely lead to increased human suffering and death, but the results
will be even more dire than that. The growing scarcity of basic human needs
could well lead to perpetual warfare in regions around the world, as people
fight over limited supplies of water, farmland, and other natural resources.

I
want to stress something I was laughed at for saying during the 2016 campaign,
and that is that climate change is the greatest national security threat facing
our country today.

And if
we are going to be honest about combating climate change, it is necessary for
us to understand that we have an economy that is rigged and a political system
that is profoundly corrupt.

In
other words, we have a small number of incredibly powerful billionaires who
exercise enormous influence over the economic and political life of the
country.

There
are a lot of parallels between what the fossil fuel industry is doing today and
the tobacco industry of 50 years ago. Decades ago, large profitable
corporations denied that cigarette smoking causes cancer and other diseases.
Today, the fossil fuel industry, making billions every year, denies what carbon
emissions are doing to our planet. They lie, lie and lie, and spend hundreds of
millions of dollars to buy politicians who echo their lies.

In the
last decade alone, the oil and gas industry has pumped more than $700 million
worth of campaign contributions into federal, state and local elections. In
that same time, they spent more than $1.5 billion lobbying in Washington, D.C.

The fossil
fuel industry has been well rewarded for their spending. An IMF report found
that direct and indirect subsidies for coal, oil and gas in the U.S. reached
$649 billion in 2015.

Maybe
providing massive support to an industry that is destroying our planet makes
sense to some people, but it damn well does not make sense to me.

And
here is even more. As a result of Trump’s tax cuts, nearly half of the Fortune
500 companies that paid zero in taxes last year were in the fossil fuel and
utility industry.

Let’s
be clear: it is time to end all subsidies and tax breaks for the oil and gas companies.These
companies lied to the American people about the very existence

of climate
change and committed one of the greatest frauds in the history of our country.

And
just as the tobacco industry was ultimately forced to pay for the fraud they
committed – the fossil fuel industry must be forced to do the same.

They
cannot destroy this planet with impunity.

So
here is the major question that we must answer: How do we take on an industry
with unlimited power and resources?

And
here in my view, is the answer.

We
need a political revolution. We need millions of people from one end of this
country to the other to stand up and fight back to create environmental policy
that works for all of us and not just the one percent.We
have got an enormous amount of work in front of us. We’ve got to educate. We've
got to organize. And we’ve got to fight for political power. The
one percent has unlimited wealth and influence, but at the end of the day they
are just one percent. And if my arithmetic is right, there are a lot more
people in the 99 percent than in the one percent. Let’s
bring our people together. Let’s transform our energy system and let’s save the
planet.